Label Text:
Born and academically trained in Leningrad, Brui associated with the experimental graphic section of the Union of Artists, which attracted independent artists. Here, Brui reveals knowledge conveyed by older colleagues, who introduced him to the work of the Russian avant-garde, and helped to hone his skills as a printmaker. In 1959, the ambitious young artist organized his first exhibition in his apartment. Later, in his mid-twenties, Brui left the Soviet Union. Before settling in France, he worked in Israel and the United States—where, in 1973, he met Joseph Brodsky.
This black-and-white geometric abstraction is typical of Brui’s prints of the 1960s. Although the angled black shape of The Wall appears vaguely menacing, it doesn’t confine or exclude, as Soviet walls did, but seems instead to be a flexible structure. Perhaps the effect relates to the artist’s interest at the time in then-popular theories of the paradox of the shrinking or expanding universe. In contemplation, this work invokes a feeling of cosmic depth beyond the restraints of reality.
MW, BJ, 2010
Tags:
abstract; geometry; lines Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2001.140 |
